After lengthy negotiations, the pieces have fallen into place for Bill Cosby‘s multi-generational family comedy at NBC.
As revealed at TCA, the project will be written by actor-scribe Mike O’Malley and produced by Sony Pictures TV. Cosby and The Cosby Show executive producer Tom Werner inked a deal with NBC in January for a new multi-camera family comedy starring vehicle for Cosby. The concept was TBD, and after meeting with potential writers, Cosby and Wener settled on a concept by O’Malley.
Veteran comedy showrunner Mike Sikowitz came on board to supervise O’Malley. Both O’Malley and Sikowitz are set as executive producers on the pilot only as they are tied to other series: Sikowitz is executive producer and showrunner on the new CBS/Sony TV comedy The McCarthys, while O’Malley is creator/executive producer of another upcoming comedy series, Starz’s Survivor’s Remorse. Werner also is an executive producer on Survivor’s Remorse, thus the connection to O’Malley. Werner and Cosby will executive produce the yet untitled NBC comedy, which has a script commitment with a big penalty to Cosby if the project doesn’t go to pilot.
The project, eyed for summer or fall 2015, stars Cosby as Jonathan Franklin, a patriarch of a multi-generational family who shares his many years of wit, wisdom and experience to help his daughters, sons-in-law and grandchildren navigate their complicated modern lives. O’Malley would play one of the sons-in-low, subject of availability. “It’s a classic big extended family sitcom,” NBC Entertainment president Jennifer Salke said last month.
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